LUSTER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Luster

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/lˈəstər/ Listen

noun

Luster n. One who lusts.

Lustre, Luster n. A period of five years; a lustrum. "Both of us have closed the tenth luster."

Lustre, Luster n.

1.

Brilliancy; splendor; brightness; glitter. "The right mark and very true luster of the diamond." "The scorching sun was mounted high, In all its luster, to the noonday sky." Note: There is a tendency to limit the use of luster, in this sense, to the brightness of things which do not shine with their own light, or at least do not blaze or glow with heat. One speaks of the luster of a diamond, or of silk, or even of the stars, but not often now of the luster of the sun, a coal of fire, or the like.

2.

Renown; splendor; distinction; glory. "His ancestors continued about four hundred years, rather without obscurity than with any great luster."

3.

A candlestick, chandelier, girandole, or the like, generally of an ornamental character.

4.

(Min.) The appearance of the surface of a mineral as affected by, or dependent upon, peculiarities of its reflecting qualities. Note: The principal kinds of luster recognized are: metallic, adamantine, vitreous, resinous, greasy, pearly, and silky. With respect to intensity, luster is characterized as splendent, shining, glistening, glimmering, and dull.

5.

A substance which imparts luster to a surface, as graphite and some of the glazes.

6.

A fabric of wool and cotton with a lustrous surface, used for women's dresses.

Luster ware, earthenware decorated by applying to the glazing metallic oxides, which acquire brilliancy in the process of baking.

verb

Lustre, Luster v. t. (past & past part. lustred; pres. part. lustering or lustring) To make lustrous. (R. & Poetic) "Flooded and lustered with her loosened gold."

See images of 'Luster'

Etymology of 'Luster'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Luster" Quotes from Famous Books

... majolica, most of which by that time was made in the little Italian town of Faenza, they called the ware faience, after it. This name is applied to most soft paste glazed pottery, while majolica is a ware that has a peculiar luster, and in different lights displays all the colors of the rainbow. Much ordinary glazed, unlustered pottery is ...

— St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 2, December, 1877 • Various

... Greek and Scholar. But when his own desire of fame and the eagerness of his father and relations had made him take in earnest to pleading, he made no slow or gentle advance to the first place, but shone out in full luster at once, and far surpassed all the advocates of the bar. At first, it is said, he, as well as Demosthenes, was defective in his delivery, and on that account paid much attention to the instructions, sometimes of Roscius ...

— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... small, round and polished. His sandals were of white gazelle-hide, stitched with gold, and, by way of ornament, he had but a single armlet, and a collar, consisting of ten golden rings, depending by eyelets from a flexible band of the same material. The metal was unpolished and its lack-luster red harmonized wonderfully with the ...

— The Yoke - A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the Children - of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt • Elizabeth Miller

... on them in a warm, life-giving flood. It brought out the luster in their hair; it gleamed in their eyes; it sent the warm color tingling to their faces; it made them want to sing, to dance, to shout ...

— Lucile Triumphant • Elizabeth M. Duffield

... sky was either blue or clear in its light; the clouds, either white or golden, adding to, not abating, the luster of the sky. In wet weather, there were two different species of clouds,—those of beneficent rain, which for distinction's sake I will call the non-electric rain-cloud, and those of storm, usually charged highly with electricity. The beneficent rain-cloud was indeed often ...

— The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century - Two Lectures delivered at the London Institution February - 4th and 11th, 1884 • John Ruskin

Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com